firenze day one

Our first full day in Florence started with us wandering around our neighborhood (Santa Croce). We went over to the market - we didn't buy anything but marvelled at the low prices for produce! Afterwards we got a coffee and croissant at a nearby cafe and headed toward the only thing we really had planned for the day - a tour of the duomo!









I signed up for the duomo tour online, which was only 10 euro above the price of a normal entry ticket, mostly because it was about the restoration and maintenance of the buildings. When we arrived at the ticket office, the woman who greeted us was the same one who had emailed me after I bought the tickets - and it turned out she was our tour guide! It also turned out that we were the only people who signed up for it, so we got a private tour of everything for the price of a public tour!











The tour was so interesting! We learned about the importance of the baptistry to the people of Florence (until the 1960s, all Florentines were baptized there), and how Saint John the Baptist is more important than Jesus to most Florentines. We learned that all babies baptized in the baptistry were first put into a spot that symbolized Florence and then into the baptismal font - because they were seen as Florentines first, and Christians second. We learned about how important the craft guilds always were in the city's history - all the churches have flags on them that symbolize the guilds, the church, and Florence. It was cool to see a city where the idea of work has been respected throughout the centuries!





The OPA symbol stands for Opera, which is both the Italian word for "work" and part of the name of the company that runs the church (Opera di Santa Maria di Fiore). It's been run by that company for more than 700 years! She told us how, when the church was completed, the Opera changed its focus from building the church to maintaining it...and so they've been maintaining it ever since. And as she said - she's employed by the same company that employed Michelangelo so they're basically coworkers! Super cool.













We learned all about Brunelleschi's dome and how modern architects still aren't completely sure how he got it to stand up. We saw the clock that looks all turned around with the one on the bottom and numbers going counter-clockwise - the Florence day started at sunset and had bells that rang at the beginning and end of the workday (in another example of how the history of the city is so tied to its workers). Then we went across the piazza to the studio where restoration work is done. There weren't any workers in there because, as she explained, in the summer they're up on the walls of the church. She showed us a cube of marble that crumbled like a cube of sugar in her hand, the effects of weather on the stone. They have to check all of the facade every year to make sure it's all still stable. And when it's not, they reproduce new pieces like the ones above, using traditional methods in marble! It was really cool to see. We learned that Florence is one of three cities in Italy (along with, I think, Pisa and Milano) that have an in-house restoration and maintenance studio like this. After our tour was over, she helped us get up into the cupola (it's complicated with various tickets and timed entry and stuff) and we climbed up for a view of the city!













A super nice view! But...a very steep climb. And we'd just done the tower at Lucca the day before. This was the day when I should have paid attention to the pain my knee was in (actually, the day before was probably that day). But I didn't! And that's why I'm going to physical therapy now...but that's a story for another day! The angled bricks up above are the lining of the wall of the cupola. We learned from our tour guide that by angling them like that, the forces of gravity exerted on the dome were spread out to help allow such a large dome to be built - I think it's still the biggest masonry dome in the world!





On our way out, we saw an example that looked like one of the pieces that had been in progress in the workshop! And then we went back to our apartment and had a lunch of baguette, pears, cheese, and homemade peach jam that our host left for us (she was great!). And we hung up our laundry to dry! Then, we wandered over to Santa Croce.







We didn't go in the church - we went around to the back and inside the Scuola del Cuoio - leather school. I forget when exactly it was founded, but I think it started out as a school to teach orphans a useful trade. It's in the former monastery of the church and everything that they sell is made by students in the school. We knew Florence was known for its leather, but we also knew that a lot of it sold in the tourist markets isn't made in Florence anymore. We wanted to see what kind of things the Scuola sold, but also catch some glimpses of students at work. And we did both! Matt got a wallet and I got a purse, made from the nicest leather I've maybe ever felt?? And the assistant who helped me was so nice, and I also got a leather-bound journal that was stamped with a monogram for free! It was a great experience overall. You can actually take workshops there! If I ever came back to Florence and had a little bit of time and money to spare, that would be really cool to try out.





After our leather shopping spree, we sat on the steps of the church for a while until going over to a fancy perfume store I'd read about online to test out some perfumes (they say you should wear them around for a few hours before buying)...and then we went back to our place before dinner! Dinner was really good, close to us. I think I got wild boar ragu for dinner? I was trying to try local dishes and it was delicious. But I think the star of the meal was this -



Coccoli! A Florentine snack food, fried dough balls with a bit of burrata and cured meat. Basically...the best food ever! If we'd had that the first day we were in town I might have just wanted to eat it for every meal. We got to sit outside under a covered patio area while it thunderstormed and rained for about five minutes, the only rain of our trip until then!